I bought an 05 Eddie Bauer 4x4 with 142k miles. No ticking when purchased but developed it shortly after of course. Got a guy to look at it on the side in trade for some fun items. He works in a legit shop and does work on the side in the shop with permission.

He says that it is the timing chains and doubts it is the phasers. He pulls it apart and replaces the timing chains. I ask him to go ahead and replace the phasers. He says he inspected them and they are good to go. He also replaced all my plugs...

I get it back and it is fine, runs great, no noise. Then the noise comes back intermittently and not as bad as before. He looks at it and says the timing chains must have failed. He goes back in it and tells me that the timing chains are fine and that the phasers are going bad now... WTF??

When I get it back noise is still there but now I am getting P0340 and P0345 codes and it sometimes stalls at stops. Engine starts to run rough and stalls. If I get it in neutral and give it some gas it smooths out...

I tell him if he had put the phasers in when I had asked him too we might not be going through all this. So no charge for going back into it to check the timing chains.

I bought the phasers and he put them in today. Sounds GREAT but I still have the intermittent stalling issue and intermittent P0340 and P0345 codes.
P0340 Camshaft position sensor A circuit Bank 1
P0345 Camshaft position sensor A circuit Bank 2

He says that the cam sensors may be going bad.

Trip to autozone and new sensors are in and the problem is still there but no P0340/P0345 codes - now I get P0012 A Camshaft Position - Timing Over Retarded

What the heck is going on here??

Here it is running fine...

 

What is your oil pressure ? Test it with a gauge ....

 

Not sure - don't have a guage...

 

Does the truck have enough oil

 

Dipstick shows full....

 

Another thought since you mentioned autozone. Did you use AutoZone phasers? With a retarded timing code it sounds like the phasers aren't working.

 

how bout the vvt solenoids ?

 

Dorman phasers

 

Quality there

 

You read my mind

 

So what now?

 

Pressure test , and solenoid ck . I may be off , But that is my thought with your current code .

 

not to butt in and not really sure if the 5.4 is the same as 4.6 regards to lifters or lash adjusters, but my 4.6 has been doing the same type of ticking for the longest time minus the codes or stalling. but the ticking noise is identical to mine and have been told many times that its the lifters/lash adjusters. to me it sounds like you may be dealing with multiple issues. but I could be wrong of course. try the old trick of a screw driver to the ear, or a stethoscope. may help isolate the ticking

 

Replaced the VCTs Friday. No codes no issues...

The damn things were broken...

 

Had same problem, It was the VCT solenoids. Valve Cam Timing which I replaced for around $15 each and did myself. Took about 1/2 hour and now no more stalling or running rough. This was on my 2005 Expedition with the 5.4. My problem started when I put 20w40 oil in because I had high miles on this car. It plugged up the screens on the VCT and they got sucked into the piston on the VCT so you just have to replace the VCT solenoid. Not worth trying to repair and also keep the recommended oil viscosity in car per mfg.